So, the question still is, are you ready? What is your wish? To return home to Kansas or perhaps....yes perhaps....find a Cape May Warbler. Oo la la.... I haven't seen a Cape May Warbler and I must admit, that 'that' is on my wish list for 2018.

What is on yours? It doesn't have to be a huge thing. For instance, perhaps your wish is to find one bird or perhaps your wish is larger such as wishing to travel to the Everglades, or ?

My wish list....Cape May Warbler or the Cerulean Warbler. If I had my druthers, I would take the former as I have seen the latter in South America. But I would take both. I feel this year I want to venture to Delaware River Gap and hunt and seek. Deb's mom lives up in Allentown so it would be just a jump from there, right? Of course, that is the easy part, ....finding one......well, that is beyond my control. I will listen to the song, practice looking up at the top of trees for hours to develop my warbler neck....Will spend the winter practicing fast focus on the bins (1-2-3- go...focus)... :-). Well, you know...

Now, I have always had a 'travel wish list' that corresponds with birds. Last year I spent time in Homer, Alaska (my 50th state) and appreciated the wind and cold and the Bering Sea. Years past, with youth instilled in my loins, I knew many of my friends who 'fished ' the Bering Sea earning money for college. But, did they take the time to witness the sea birds? I doubt it....so while I missed that opportunity in college, I hit upon it last year and didn't have to fish.

This year....two things. Texas in Feb or March....more specifically I want to see the Santa Ana Refuge before 'idiot-man' builds a wall thru it. Idiot man is an idiot without self-recognition of, as most idiots are. Idiot man exists but idiot man will not endure. Anyhow, I have a target of 21 birds I want to see in the Rio Grande area and feel I have a great chance of seeing all 21 Texas / Mexico birds.....

My other 'wish' is to participate in the 'vomit' boat and see my pelagic birds. Yes, while in the Bering Sea I saw a few, but not like a pelagic adventure deep out to sea. But I am not as willing to vomit on the east coast as much as readily vomiting on the west coast. You see, it all has to do with the continental shelf. On the east coast, in order to do a proper pelagic trip, one has to vomit way out to sea...spend hours on the boat and having the pleasure of vomiting multiple hours and perhaps over the course of a few days as one leaves port, spends the night aboard the vomit vessel and then views birds the following day...way out at sea, all of this extended vomiting time is due to the distance of the continental shelf.

While on the west coast, the shelf doesn't extend as far, thus limiting the exposure time to the routine of vomiting. I figure from Newport, Oregon in August or Sept would be prime time to vomit. I would leave port around 7 in the morning and face the seas to vomit. But we would return 5-7 hours later, having more of a reprieve for 'one' who prefers less of a sea-leg adventure.

So.... Texas to view the refuge prior to the actions of idiot man, and Newport Oregon to vomit. Those are my wish list activities. Of course, the relatively benign trip to Delaware River Gap sandwiched in between.

Warbler neck, idiot man, vomit boat? Absolutely hysterical Jim! My 2018 wish list is the same as my 2017 wish list and my 2016 wish list and on and on. I want to complete my trifecta of puffins and see an Atlantic Puffin off the coast of Maine. Funny I've seen two species of puffins in Alaska, but I can't get the third which is only a few states away.

Reply

Lester Block

3/6/2018 10:01:44 am

I loved this...especially the 'vomit boat"! I'm not so sure I want to endure the vomit boat myself....did that once and it isn't a pleasant memory. As for 2018.....I already fulfilled part of the wish list...traveled to the Galapagos....of course, I could always go somewhere else....